…Whitney also said financial regulation reform and policy-making that is not friendly to the middle class will hurt growth.

“The populist incumbents argue that we’ve got to get money to redistribute wealth,” she said. “This squeezes the middle class further down the food chain. The unintended consequences of this are maddening.”..

…”There is no question that today’s housing market is in significantly better shape than anyone predicted 18 months ago,” he told reporters, adding, “Seventeen months after President Obama took office our housing market is stabilizing.”

To support the claim, the HUD chief released a scorecard on the housing market that showed after 30 straight months of decline, home prices have leveled off and are expected to begin adjusting upward.

It also showed that since April 2009, 2.8 million homeowners have received restructured mortgages through Obama’s loan modification programs, and more than 2.5 million families used the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit to purchase a home. The credit was a part of the first stimulus bill Obama signed into law shortly after taking office….